By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
LITTLE ROCK — For more than 20 years, Eric De Vries has made a career of helping children discover a love of nature and a passion for learning. De Vries, extension coordinator of Arkansas Outdoor School for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, was recently recognized for his efforts by the Arkansas Environmental Education Association with the Robert McAfee Lifetime Service Award.
The award honors an Arkansan who has “exhibited personal and professional commitment to environmental education, service, awareness, knowledge and action throughout their career and life.” For De Vries, this award is due in part to his many teammates and collaborators throughout his career.
OUTDOOR EDUCATION FOR ALL — Eric De Vries, extension coordinator of Arkansas Outdoor School for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, has worked in environmental education for more than 20 years. He was recently awarded the Robert McAfee Lifetime Service Award by the Arkansas Environmental Education Association. (Division of Agriculture photo.)
“Part of why this award means so much to me is that it makes me think about all the people I’ve worked with for such a long time,” De Vries said. “It gave me pause to go back and think about the organizations, the people and all the unique projects I’ve got to be involved with. I think about all those individual experiences we facilitated that could have been really powerful for our participants.”
The Arkansas Environmental Education Association provides a network for members to collaborate on projects, share programming ideas and recognize leaders in environmental education. The organization defines environmental education as a learning process that builds knowledge and awareness of the environment and its challenges.
De Vries said the award is especially meaningful because of the organization that awarded it.
“These are people I really respect,” he said. “I understand the effort that they’re putting out there, how much they care for their environment and care about people, to do the work that they do. To get this kind of award from those people, that’s really special to me.”
Shannon Caldwell, extension 4-H Center program director for the Division of Agriculture, said De Vries defines the role of environmental educator.
“Eric loves to educate,” Caldwell said. “He likes to ‘edu-tain.’ He knows that if the kids are having fun, they will learn without even realizing they are learning. They will develop a love of learning, and they will learn to appreciate and enjoy our environment and the outdoors.”
Caldwell said De Vries has worked with more than 40,000 participants in the last 10 years at the 4-H Center, and that his career of more than 20 years has had “far-reaching impacts that we will never really be able to fully capture.”
“I look up to Eric,” Caldwell said. “I seek out his counsel when thinking of ways to innovate and collaborate. His level of developing the next generation of environmental educators is an example to all of us.”
A natural educator
De Vries said his passion for nature was instilled at an early age. His parents met in the Peace Corps, and he lived with them in Tanzania in East Africa until he was 13 years old.
“I don’t remember a time where I wasn’t out exploring nature,” De Vries said. “My parents would just say, ‘Go,’ and I’d be hiking through the bush trying to find pythons and other critters. I think that’s where my love for nature really started.”
His family moved to Little Rock when his father started working at Heifer International. De Vries graduated from Hendrix College in 1994, originally planning to study environmental law.
De Vries served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for two years, working in Perry, Conway and Faulkner counties with at-risk youth programs. When his AmeriCorps team helped start a ropes course with Heifer International, De Vries received his first training in the dynamic team-building activity.
“When I started doing that, I thought, ‘Man, this is a powerful tool,’” De Vries said. “I really started wondering, can one do this kind of stuff for a career?’ That’s when my mindset changed — I don’t want to go to law school, I want to see what else is possible.”
De Vries then worked as a training instructor for the Civilian Student Training Program, or CSTP, an Arkansas Department of Human Services residential program for juvenile court-ordered young men. Through this role, he learned about Arkansas 4-H by taking groups to the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center.
“I loved CSTP,” De Vries said. “I saw so much change. That’s the thing I love about my job as an educator. I feel so blessed. I’ve worked at wonderful places full of wonderful, hardworking dedicated people. I stayed with CSTP for four years because I saw what a difference the program could make in nine weeks. For some of those kids, it was life-changing.”
De Vries began working as a ropes course facilitator at the Arkansas 4-H Center in 2001, where he stayed for four years. He then worked for 11 years as a regional education coordinator and later as assistant chief of education for Arkansas Game and Fish. In 2008, he earned his master’s in Public Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. When the Arkansas Outdoor School coordinator role became available in 2014, De Vries returned to Arkansas 4-H.
Outdoor skills, life skills
The Arkansas Outdoor School began more than 20 years ago as the RESQ program – Responsible Environmental Stewardship Quest. It was later rebranded, and De Vries said the program now focuses on environmental education and outdoor recreation through the lens of the 4-H life skills model.
“We teach all kinds of life skills, no matter what we’re doing,” De Vries said. “If we’re teaching canoeing, for instance, we’re going to talk about it, teach you safety stuff, you’re going to go and experience it – experiential education, that’s our philosophy – and then when you come back, we’re going to process that, we’re going to talk about it.
“The big question is, ‘so now what?’” De Vries said. “What did you learn? How do you apply that to the future? What can you really take away from that experience?”
De Vries said another critical skill that outdoor education teaches is the ability to take risks and face challenges.
“Working with kids, especially in environmental education – that energizes me,” he said. “There’s nothing like experiencing a person catching their first fish, taking a risk and trying something new. The skill of taking risks is so important. That could be something that’s life-altering for a kid. In just a short amount of time, I believe the things we do here can have a huge impact.”
Experiential learning – learning by doing – is a pillar of the Arkansas Outdoor School programming. Ensuring the content is age-appropriate and developed for the correct audience is also key, De Vries said.
“We’re kind of edu-tainers,” he said. “We’ve got to educate, but if we don’t make it interesting, will they remember? Will they connect with it as much? I think it’s an art of being able to do that and make every experience special for a kid.
“You know it’s their first time, so even though you’ve taught this one lesson a hundred times, or it’s the thirtieth day of field trips and you’re really tired, it’s the first time for them,” De Vries said. “Can you make this a fresh and wonderful experience for them? Each one is individually super important.”
Educating the next generation
De Vries said the lessons that outdoor education teaches are necessary to create the next generation of environmental stewards.
“With the kids that come through our program, we’re trying to create an intellectual understanding,” De Vries said. “How does the world around us work? What’s a butterfly? What’s the process of metamorphosis? Or, what’s the skill in canoeing?
“We’re also trying to create this emotional connection, so it’s not just this knowledge, but also, ‘Why is it important to me?’ If we want to create good stewards in the future, they’ve got to not only understand it, but it’s got to be important to them. I think that’s where we can really create that opportunity for them.”
De Vries encouraged parents to learn about the outdoors alongside their children and practice their own risk-taking abilities.
“It’s okay to tell your kid, ‘I don’t know how to do this stuff, but I want to learn. Let’s do this together,’” De Vries said. “How cool is that? That you’re demonstrating to your child, ‘I’m going to take this risk, I’m going to put myself out there, I’m going to try.’
“And your child can see, ‘Oh, they’re willing to fail too,’” he said. “‘They’re going to learn with me.’ In some ways, that’s an advantage. They don’t look at you as an expert, but as on this journey with them.”
To learn more about Arkansas Outdoor School, visit 4h.uada.edu/programs/4h-center/arkansas-outdoor-school and check out the Arkansas Outdoor School Facebook page or the Arkansas Outdoor School Instagram. Contact Eric De Vries at 501-821-6884 or at aos@uada.edu.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.